Crystals Secrets

Author: Justin D Hampton / Terran Core Stories /

This is my first book, I will finish at ten chapters.

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Chapter One - Farmers Surprise

Early in the morning beams of sunlight shower over the wine farm.

The chirping of the birds is loud and always wakes up Burrben reminding him it's time to get up and work.

As Burrben is waking up he stretches out his arms and sits upright.

Looking out his bedroom window. While sitting on his bed he sees a wonderful field of grapes out his bedroom window. All the amazing smells flowing in this open window.

Beautiful grapes of various colors on each row of grapes different from the next.

Green Grapes, Blue Grapes, Purple Grapes, Red Grapes, and his prized Crop Golden Grapes.

After taking in the view of his field he accomplished with his hard labor.

He thinks to himself, " I better get some food and dressed. We have a lot to do. "

A few minutes later he comes walking into a very simple looking kitchen. Nothing to fancy just the basic needs, and proceeds to start making hot steaming tea.

The cup he pulls from the cabinet is a Bright Green, deep and wide cup.

He drops 2 tea bags in the cup, then Grabs a tea kettle and walks over to the sink and fills it up with water.

He puts down his cup by the stove and pulls a lever that moves a panel that covers the heating source used to make the burner hot. The heating source is seen as a bright red crystal that is glowing and emitting heat of amazing temperatures.

He places the kettle on the stove and waits for it to tell him it's hot and ready.

While he is waiting for his water to heat. He walks out to the back porch opening the old wooden door holding it open with his hand.

Burrben yells out, “Freka , Morn, if you hear me return to the house.”

After a few minutes, Burrben returns to the kitchens and finishes his tea, pouring the hot water into his cup over the tea bags.

A wonderful smell fills the room as the tea soaks in the cup of hot water.

Burrben thinks to himself. " I wonder where they went to ".

Earlier that day The Farm Hands Freka and Morn live in the apartments at the top of the barn. Were out working before Burrben woke up.

After Freka and Morn finished their tending to the animals, giving each animal hay and other treats in the early morning.

They walked out of the barn and looked at the rows of grapes.

As Morn and Freka start walking down the eastern line of grapes near the wall. Freka looks over at Morn, and says “ There is something wrong here, we are missing 10 feet of grapes. “

Morn kneels down and picks up some of the broken plants looking for clues, after a few minutes he covers half of the damaged row. Checking for footprints or bite marks or some kind of indication of what caused this.

Morn looks over to Freka and says, “ I don’t see any indication, how these went missing and most of the plants look untouched. I see just minor breaks. “

They both hear. Burrben yelling. After some checking, they stand up and start returning to the house.

Twenty minutes later Freka and Morn come running up to the house. " Burrb! Burrb!! Burrb!!!. "

They burst open the porch door and swing it open quickly and stop at the kitchen table while out of breath staring at Burrben. Freka Says " We have a huge issue. We are missing grapes. Several rows are void of green grapes. "

Burrben stands up and Looks at Freka and Morn who are dressed decently for halflings who work on a farm. They are wearing grey overalls, with the farm logo on them of Grapes in the center of a crown.

Burrben looks into his tea, Takes a nice long slow sip. and says " Crops missing huh. And I thought today would be a great day. "

Burrben puts down his tea.

Burrben says, " Ok Freka , show me where the problem is. "

All Three walk out of the back door of the farmhouse to the porch deck down the smaller stairs.

Freka says, " This way!. “ all the rows till they arrive at the green grapes. Freka says” I was cleaning up the underbrush of dead leaves and found the missing section. We looked for bites, breaks, footprints, we came up with nothing. "

They all walk in a medium stride for a few rows over near the fence on the far side and down the row for a while.

Freka says " see, all the plant is still in the ground but that's about it, all grapes gone. "

Burrben, Kneels down and examines the plants. then thinks to himself " Not a good time. we got a quota to make. "

They spent a while walking the rows making notes of all the damage done to the crops.

They didn't see anything odd other than missing grapes. At Noon when the sun is high above the vineyard and they are starting to get tired and still haven't started the daily cleaning of the rows.

Burrben states " Morn , Get my Backpack, We need someone smarter than us to figure this out. In the meantime. Freka , Morn, Get the rows ready to Harvest.

Morn Perks up, " Yes Barrben, " runs into the house.

Freka states " Are you sure we need help on this. it's just a few crops. "

Burrben, looks Freka dead into the eyes and says " We can't have this be a recurrence. this has to stop or we are out of work. Go and get ready to harvest the grapes. "

During the search, the sun has moved a few degrees making it a bit cooler in the day.

Morn Returns with the backpack and says " here you go burrben "

Burrben says" Thanks Morn, We need Rows 1 - 3 completely cleared today. all bagged and packed on the wagon. I will be taking the pony to the city. “

Burrben walks to the nicely lit barn that is fairly huge, as he enters the building it smells of animals and plants.

As he arrives at the first stall, a wonderful pony is there with all riding gear all ready to leave.

The pony is in great health, all groomed wearing a leather saddle.

Burrben, opens the stall door and grabs the bridal, and leads the pony out of the barn.

He climbs on the pony and yells, I'll be back in a day or two. Hopefully with Help.

Freka yells back, " Ok Burrben we will try to get a lot done, have a good ride. "

Burrben, Tells the pony " let's go "

The pony hears the command then his head perks up. Then starts trotting down the dirt road.

Over the next few hours, Burrben thought to himself, what in the world caused crops to just go missing like that. Was it bugs, magic bugs, Highly skilled fruit bats. On the last hour of the trip, he sees the gates in the distance.